Board Game Arena

Since there's currently not a physical version, it seems like this could be played with a deck of cards, correct? Only for 2-3 players though since you need 5-6 colors with more players.

Use the 1-10 of each suit, get rid of the rest.
Use something like an Ace or spade to represent up or down (or a coin maybe)

Has anyone tried this and are there any issues?

You can use the ace of spades and turn it around so the spade points up or down

Yes, I’ve done this often since finding this game on BGA! I use a joker for up/down (face up is up, face down is down) mostly but if there’s pen/paper handy, I just do a scrap of paper that says “up”/“down” on different sides!

We don’t use ace of spades as an up/down arrow for 2 reasons. 1 - you’d both need to be sat the same side of the game (or one of you would see up while the other sees down if sat opposite!). 2 - we need the ace of spades as the ‘1’ for the spades suit!

Using a deck of cards (with the different symbols) is also much more accessible for colour blind friends. (Much easier to differentiate between the symbols than the blues/greens in an Easy Peasy deck!)

Like most games, playing face to face involves more tactical play/less ‘luck’ because you can look at the behaviour and reactions of your opponent/s much more carefully and clearly.

Finally, the physical game DOES exist. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to share links, but I got mine online from blam. It may not be available in your country, but absolutely does exist!